Oral Answers to Questions

Tristan Osborne Excerpts

Wednesday 5th November 2025 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

The hon. Lady knows that we have 80 years of convention, and it is for the Chancellor of the Exchequer to present her Budget later on this month. I say gently to her: it was under her Government, in which her party was in coalition with the Conservatives, that we saw austerity right across our country; and she will know that there are major parties that are proposing austerity again. I know that the Chancellor will do everything she can to continue, as she set out yesterday, to invest in our NHS and in our public services.

[Tristan Osborne (Chatham and Aylesford) (Lab)]

Q4. The leader of my local council, Kent county council, has said that they are a “shop window” for Reform UK. With councillors facing criminal charges, inappropriate conduct and behaviour, a defection, five expulsions, a failed DOGE-inspired cost-cutting drive and an authoritarian leader who shouts and swears at colleagues, does the Deputy Prime Minister agree that the people of Kent deserve so much better? How will the Government ensure that we deliver higher standards in local government?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

I see the hon. Member for Clacton (Nigel Farage) in his seat. This may be the first time I have seen him at Prime Minister’s questions. Reform said that Kent county council would be the best advert for what a Reform Government would look like, and they are delivering on the chaos that they promised. On standards in public life, I say to the hon. Gentleman— [Interruption.] This is serious. I used to replace the hon. Gentleman on LBC, so we have known each other for many years. The disgraceful, racist language that we heard from a Reform MP last week belongs in the dark ages, and he should condemn it.